Strawberry And Passionfruit Meringue Stack
Essence columnist Barb Palmer has been part of the friendly team at Rangiora New World for 20 years, the last eight as their Brand Ambassador sharing recipes and ideas with customers.
Winter is certainly starting to rear its head which makes it an ideal time to plan a mid-winter Christmas Dinner. Nothing better than sitting down to a hot Christmas Dinner in the middle of winter with friends and family. Start planning your menu and delegate courses out for others to make which will make your job easier on the night.
This month’s recipe is a slight twist on a traditional pavlova, a Strawberry and Meringue Stack. Layered meringue discs filled with cream, strawberries, passion fruit pulp and strawberry sauce.
A couple of pointers to make your recipe a success, Make the discs ahead and store in an airtight container. I drew 20cm circles on baking paper so they were all of uniform size, if strawberries are hard to find substitute with kiwi fruit or tinned fruit and use a ready made dessert sauce.
With the price of eggs use the yolks for a cake, don’t waste anything. Just remember to share the preparation with your guests and everyone gets to enjoy the evening.
For other great Christmas Menu ideas check out our recipes online at www.newworld.co.nz
Until next time, Happy Cooking.
Strawberry and Passionfruit Meringue Stack
Serves 8 to 10
Prep time: 30 mins
Cooking time: 1 hour 30 mins
Ingredients
• 5 egg whites
• 285g Pams Caster Sugar
• 1 tsp + 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 500g strawberries
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 tbsp + 1 tbsp Pams Icing Sugar
• Pulp of 3 passionfruit or passionfruit pulp
• 300ml Pams Cream
• 1 tbsp sliced almonds, lightly toasted
• Mint leaves to garnish, optiona
Preheat your oven to 120°C fan bake.
In a large, clean bowl, beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks using an electric beater or stand mixer. While the beater is still running, add 1tsp vanilla and slowly stream the caster sugar into the egg whites, and mix until the egg whites are thick, glossy, and there are no sugar granules present.
Onto two lined baking trays, spread 4 thin rounds of meringue mixture. Place into the oven and bake for 1 1/2 hours or until dried and crisp. Turn the oven off and leave to rest for an hour, then transfer into an airtight container until needed.
To make the strawberry sauce, combine half of the strawberries in a blender or food processor with the lemon juice and 1 Tbsp of icing sugar. Blend until smooth, then strain through a sieve and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, whip the cream with the remaining vanilla and icing sugar until it reaches soft peaks, ensuring not to over whip. Fold half of the strawberry sauce gently through the whipped cream, then dice the remaining strawberries.
Assemble the stack by spreading some of the cream across the base of one of the meringue discs. Sprinkle over some of the diced strawberries, then top with some passionfruit pulp. Repeat the previous step with the remaining meringue discs, then garnish the top with strawberries, passionfruit, sliced almonds and mint leaves if desired.